Foreign Notices : — Africa. 



hints respecting the Cape, and indeed it is for that reason I send you the 

 Calendar, and shall be glad to answer any queries you may be pleased to 

 send. 



A Quarterly Journal of the Institution will be printed, of which I shall 

 send you a copy ; there may be some food in it for your Magazine of Na- 

 tural History. Whether my papers will be printed I do not know ; but 

 they are of a local nature, and consequently uninteresting to Europe. 



I have refrained from sending you any communications on the Cape 

 botany as yet, as I hardly know where to fix my attention to what might 

 be generally useful. But the unwelcome detention so long in Cape Town 

 has allowed me to observe the habits of various plants deserving of atten- 

 tion, and which I shall put into form at some favourable opportunity. 



In your Encyclopaedia of Plants, which I have seen in the public library, 

 I perceive some errors which I did not expect ; but a singular one is, the 

 placing of Crassula quadrangularis of Burrmann among the Ewphovhidcece. 

 I am the only person at the Cape who knows the plant, and I believe the 

 European botanists are unacquainted with it. It is not at present within 

 my reach. 



It is not only with surprise, but also with regret, that I find a plant of 

 mine has been called Clivz'tf nobilis, while the name published by Dr. 

 Hooker is the only authorised one. It was only a few clays before I left 

 England that I refused to name the plant to any person but Dr. Hooker. 

 I must say that I am much displeased at the whole transaction. 



This colony is slowly improving. The settlement at Swan River has 

 already been of benefit here to the farmers. Persons emigrating to the 

 new settlement would do well to purchase their stock of cattle, horses, 

 sheep, pigs, and poultry, &c, at the Cape ; which they can do at one fifth 

 of the cost in England, independently of the expense of transport, the 

 voj^age from the Cape to Swan River is about one month, perhaps less. 

 We have not yet heard thence, but expect to hear every hour, and are 

 anxious to learn how they get on. Mr. Drummond and family resided 

 in the same house with me, and left this in excellent health ; the short stay 

 he made here enabled him to take with him some of our fruit trees, and at 

 a season for having every chance of success. 



We have had a cold winter, and abundance of rain ; much more corn 

 has been sown than at any former period, and we anticipate an abundant 

 harvest. 



I wish you could persuade one of the English nurserjnnen of your 

 acquaintance to send on trial a few one-year headed-down or maiden fruit 

 trees, placed in a tin case and closely soldered down. I would thankfully 

 return, to the value of 10/., South African seeds and bulbs. An experiment 

 made here of confining fruit trees soldered down for four months has 

 succeeded. 



We want the Orleans Plum, Green Gage Plum, Moor Park Apricot, 

 Swan's Egg and good Keeping Pears, good Keeping Apples, Morello and 

 other good Cherries. 



I shall write to you again as soon as possible, but I hope you will favour 

 me with a few lines as soon as you receive this ; and, if you can persuade 

 any person to send plants on trial as above, I will send to the value as men- 

 tioned, whatever state the trees may arrive in, whether good or bad. I wish 

 the experiment to be made, and will publish the result. They should be 

 marked " Fruit Trees," and sent by one of the Cape traders. 



I have been so frequently disappointed in receiving good kitchen-garden 

 seeds from England, that I have declined sending positive orders for more ; 

 but if any seedsman of your acquaintance would send to the amount of 

 about 51., I would immediately return Cape seeds and bulbs for them ; they 

 should be packed in brown paper, or canvass, and marked garden seeds. 

 The following are the most wanted : — Cauliflower, York Cabbage, Red 



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